Today, the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce (C4) called for a marijuana testing reference library in support of amended HB15-1283 currently underway in the Colorado legislature.

“The mandatory testing requirements for retail marijuana were put into place before there were standards established for the labs,” C4 President Tyler Henson explained. “Unfortunately this led to a wide disparity in testing results from lab to lab.”

The C4 Chamber possesses documented surveys by members who have submitted samples from the same batches to different licensed labs in Colorado, only to receive drastically different results – upwards of 40%.

Henson continued, “Because of these issues, the standards and methodologies should be established properly within a reference library, just like any other industry that utilizes testing before we subject the industry to even more costs in an unproven system.”

The current system also does now allow for variance in test results, as currently, even if a product is less than 1-milligram over the 10-milligram serving size, the whole batch must be destroyed.

An allowance for testing variance in products is common across many industries, particular with pharmaceutical companies. A reference library would be able to establish standards for testing variance in cannabis, in order to make both laboratories and manufactures more efficient.

Henson continued: “Our members are left with a lot of difficult questions under our current system in choosing a laboratory to use for testing without any testing standards. Do they choose the cheapest lab? The most consistent lab?”

“These issues with our current testing system are why the Chamber supports HB15-1283, creating a reference library of testing methodologies,” Henson concluded.

What??? Cannabis strains can have a statistically dramatic variances in potency. Is the corporate greenhouse capable of catching all strains at that “sweet spot” point for harvest? I have never seen it; I have seen stronger and weaker testing within the same strain!!! Often stronger reports come from private growers, while I have seen far weaker tests from a large grow!!! Let’s say “My Stash” growers tests their product at 20%, they test in subsequent years and some private growers are getting 28 to 29%, while “My Stash” may test only 15% as they are paying far more attention to a new potential Cannabis Cup winner and just miss the sweet spot. Some grows use the excuse of genetics, while others say nothing. Any percentage should be taken as a ballpark figure because can you see the outrageous problems any deviance in this range, and can make a private gardener feel pretty special, but what happens when a grower cannot exceed within a range the strains they grow from seed when government gets so tight assed that they feel it is some fantastical error. Surely no private grower cannot get a higher test result than our norms from these large corporate grows, but they are doing exactly that, on a daily basis. They tend to see their data as the only reliable data!!! Someone must have done a Voo Doo chant over to achieve such results. They are not taking into account that Johnny G’s dispensary and small grow op could obtain far superior results, so how will this potentially affect Johnny G’s “best of care” business? Will they be forced to destroy a strain that, by percentage alone, achieves far over this 10 mg. serving limit. This is a lofty goal, but when they do not understand the problem they would destroy batches in Ignorance!!! The extraction process varies as well so each edible/dose will have to be changed by micrograms quite often!!!

Setting up testing requirements without a testing protocol seems odd. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia has pretty much set the standards for testing methods for cannabis in their Cannabis Monograph. Why reinvent the wheel?

I just want to know what pesticides, fertilizers, mold and other stuff is in my weed, and how dangerous it is. Certainly the state should establish rules and limits on the use of anything but plain old water, bare hands and sunshine. Listing the THC content would be nice too. Mandatory disclosure of these facts with every purchase just makes sense.